Devastation
by RJ Thompson
Summary: After beating Mundus, Dante encounters a mysterious woman, an army of devils, and an ancient culture at the White Sands resort. Unarmed and alone, can Dante survive?


Devil May Cry:  
Devastation  
  
*Author's note* I really want feedback on this story. I'm trying to capture as much of the essence of Dante as I can and to create some cool new devils. Reviews and suggestions are welcome!  
  
  
Prologue-  
  
It began as a simple day. The sky was clear and blue, the ocean crystal and calm. Dante sat on a black beach blanket, wearing a dark red shirt and a pair of black swim trunks. Two women walked the sandy beach dressed in bikinis. Dante watched them pass, though he wasn't really interested. He was thinking. Thinking about his encounter with Mundus and about Trish. He had hoped that coming to White Sands, one of the most exclusive resorts in the world, would help him to relax.  
  
Five massages, three umbrella drinks, and two heavy workouts later, he was still trapped by his own thoughts.  
  
"Screw it." Dante muttered to himself. "Mundus is history and Trish is. . . somewhere else." A frown found its way to his face. Why had Trish left him? What had she said? Dante closed his eyes and remembered.  
  
"I have to find out who I am and what I am. Am I just a thing Mundus created or am I some part of your mother he stole?" Those were Trish's words.  
  
Dante had found them disturbing. Ever since the darkness on Mallet Island, he'd been having  
trouble sleeping. He kept seeing Nelo Angelo, the Black Angel. Dante kept seeing that face,  
almost his own, though twisted with malice and cold evil. Still, in that face were traces of Virgil, Dante's brother. Every night, he felt a horrible certainty that Nelo Angelo truly had been his once dead brother. And if that were true, then Trish could have been his mother resurrected by Mundus.  
  
"No," Dante thought out loud, his eyes locked on the calm ocean waves, "Trish wasn't my mother and Nelo Angelo wasn't Virgil. They were devils created by Mundus, like any of the other monsters I kill." He spoke with conviction, though there was a hint of uncertainty just beneath the surface. "Just devils. Maybe one's with a little something extra, to make them more useful against me, but they were still just devils."  
  
A shadow fell over Dante. "Talking to yourself, handsome? That might keep most girls away, but fortunately for you, I like crazy men."  
  
Dante's head jerked in shock. He hadn't heard anyone come near and he hadn't felt anything  
either. As his own cold blue eyes met soft brown ones, Dante felt relieved. This woman didn't look like a devil, she looked like a school teacher.  
  
"Mind if I sit with you?" She asked as she sat down beside Dante, obviously not expecting him to say no. Dante didn't tell her to leave, though he made a point of trying to act disinterested.  
  
The woman smiled warmly. She was short and very petite, a mere five feet and two inches. Her hair was also short, cut just above her shoulders. It was the color of coffee and cream, with streaks of faint red highlights. Dressed in a one piece swimsuit with no back and a plunging neckline, a conservative outfit compared to most of what Dante had seen walking by, she seemed very comfortable in her tanned skin. Her lips were made for smiling, pulling back to reveal pearl teeth. One tooth was damaged, a corner broken off, making it seem sharp and fang-like. Still, Dante didn't expect her to morph into a monster and try to kill him.  
  
"So Mr. tall, dark, and handsome, what brings you to this little island resort? The white sands for which its named, the cool and calm ocean waters, or maybe the mostly female guest list." The woman's eyes twinkled; the glitter seeming to invite Dante to share in a great joke. "No, no! Don't tell me!" She put a hand to her chin, imitating a work of great art, before snapping her fingers and laughing. "The sand! Am I right? Did I win a prize?"  
  
Without intending to, Dante let out a guffaw. This woman was too unusual not to find  
refreshingly funny.  
  
The woman let out another long laugh, musical and spirited. "My name's Lucrezia Fetherling.  
Mind if I ask yours?" Lucrezia's tone was smoothly friendly. She acted as if Dante were an old friend, not someone she just happened to decide to sit by.  
  
Maybe it was her manner that got Dante to speak so easily. "My name's Dante, Dante Sparda." He said, giving her his true name and the guise under which he was vacationing.  
  
Lucrezia reached out and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you Dante. Seen any good sand lately?" They both chuckled for a moment. Brushing a bit of hair back behind her ear, Lucrezia asked "so why are you here Mr. Dante?"  
  
Dante smirked. "I just kicked a demonic god's ass and decided I needed a vacation. Plus, I'm a half devil, half human with powers beyond most people's understanding." Dante waited to see how she'd react to that.  
  
"And I thought I had troubles!" Lucrezia said with a theatrical sigh. "Oh well, guess we can't all be heros." She sounded so serious that Dante couldn't help smiling. "Ah! A smile from the great god slayer! I guess even a half devil isn't immune to my feminine charms."  
  
"Or maybe he's just wondering if you're insane." The words were spoken lightly, but Dante saw instantly that they hadn't been the right ones.  
  
For a moment, Lucrezia's face was friendly and warm. In the next, it seemed to grow colder.   
"Insanity isn't my province." Her voice held a distinctly threatening tone and seemed to be implying something. She studied Dante closely, perhaps trying to decide if his joke had been serious.  
  
Afer what seemed like a lifetime, Lucrezia smiled again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to act like a  
bitch." A deep sigh seemed to drain the light from her eyes. "I just have a problem with people calling me 'insane' and stuff like that." She shrugged, as if trying to make the moment less awkward.  
  
"I didn't mean to insult you. I was just trying for funny." Dante said in his gruff but pleasing  
voice.  
  
"No offense, but I get the feeling you don't do funny often. I should have been a little more  
grateful that you made the attempt." Lucrezia suddenly leapt to her feet, her motions smooth and fluid. "Tell you what. I'm going for a swim in that pretty ocean water. If your still around when I get back, I'll buy you a drink. Deal?"  
  
Dante reached out and shook her hand. "Deal."  
  
He watched Lucrezia rise from the sands and walk to the ocean water. Under the almost skin  
tight material of her swimsuit, her muscles were well defined. Obviously, this was a woman who kept in shape. With a last smiling glimpse at Dante, Lucrezia dove into the ocean.  
  
For a few minutes, Dante kept track of her as she swam farther and farther out, seemingly  
immune to fear or sharks and undertone. Lucrezia was so far out that even Dante's keen eyes had difficulty seeing her. Finally, he gave up watching and decided to take a nap.  
  
Laying back, his arms folded behind his head, Dante closed his eyes. As he relaxed, he felt a cold wind rising. Slowly, the air seemed to grow heavier. A distant rumble bespoke of thunder and storm on the way. Dante opened his eyes and was surprised by how dark the sky had suddenly gotten. "I wasn't asleep." He said to himself as he rose from his beach blanket.  
  
A great chain of lightning flared across the sky suddenly, streaking overhead. Dante spun around and saw the bolt strike a point somewhere in the distant island interior, a place of forests and native ruins from the islands former inhabitants. Dante knew nothing of the local natives. The White Sands resort kept a private museum dedicated to them, but otherwise, they refused to share the knowledge with the world.  
  
Thunder roared and a powerful wind slammed into Dante, almost knocking him down. Terrible, unearthly cold permeated his body. Recollection of similar cold brought Dante into a fighter's crouch. He'd tasted that bitter feeling of darkness touching to soul only once before. It was the feeling of passing between reality and the Underworld, the place of devils and black hearted gods.  
  
"Great. This was supposed to be a vacation." Dante muttered. Then he spun around to face the ocean. "Lucrezia!" He started toward the water, hoping the sweet woman was close enough to hear him. "Lucrezia! Get out! Something's coming!"  
  
The instant Dante's foot touched the ocean water, he felt a wave of power wash over him. It was like touching a barrier of power, a power beyond any he had ever felt before. Not even Mundus, the dark god of the Underworld, had matched this. Dante was lifted bodily and heaved backwards thirty feet by the unseen power. He landed with a soft piff in a sand dune.  
  
Rising, Dante was unsurprised to see a horde of inhuman things coming forward from the ocean, which had turned black with the sudden arrival of the storm clouds. He looked into the sky, caught sight of flying things unlike any he'd ever encountered as well as familiar Plasmas in their bat form. More lightening flashed over head, most of it was directed toward the island's center. Occasionally, a bolt went astray toward the museum. Dante knew instinctively that something important lay in that building.  
  
He turned his attention to the ocean. A great circle of fog had surrounded the island and from  
that fog came hideous amorphous abominations that Dante couldn't readily make out. From the water itself, he saw fish creatures walking up. Stalking out of the darkest places were familiar Shadows, their cat forms twisting away from the tuna men. Dante didn't see Lucrezia and he guessed that she was dead. "Damn it. Another innocent lost." He balled his hands into fists. "This ends here." Dante reached behind him, instinctively seeking the deadly Sword of Sparda, his father's gift heirloom and the weapon that originally stopped Mundus. His hand closed on thin air. "Oh hell."  
  
Dante had left the Sword of Sparda and his twin pistols Ebony & Ivory back in his room. Out on the beaches of white sand, faced with an army of devils, many of which looked more lethal than any he had previously encountered, Dante stood unarmed and alone.  
  
A twisted smile formed on his face. "Let's rock." A very human cry of anger bellowing out from deep within his chest, Dante strode bravely toward the devil army, his bare fists clenched in righteous fury.  
  
  
End of Prologue 


End file.
